Lariam is no stranger to controversy and a number of pending legal actions in Ireland is, according to manufacturer Roche, not the reason why it has been withdrawn.

According to Roche, "Lariam was taken off sale following "a portfolio reassessment" by the company."

They add that "it remains available in 16 European countries."
Slightly worrying.

Back in August 2015 I wrote to the British drug regulator, the MHRA, regarding the number of associated completed suicides on Lariam, a figure I pulled from the MHRA database.

They told me...

"Of the nine UK spontaneous suspected ADR reports of suicide associated with mefloquine, I can confirm that three of the cases were followed up by the MHRA with either the reporting doctor or family member. Two cases were reported to us by pharmaceutical companies and so follow-up was conducted by the Marketing Authorisation Holder.

"The remaining four cases were received between 1998 and 2002 and as such were previously stored in our legacy ADR database. We do not hold records of follow up letters to cases from our legacy database and can confirm that we have no record of any further communications regarding these cases."

Remarkably, the MHRA continue to give the antidepressant, Seroxat, a clean bill of health despite it being reported that there have been 65 reports of completed suicide via the MHRA database. Lariam, to date, has 12 reports of completed suicide associated with its use.